Darryl Mabley has been a well-known voice on Barrie radio for more than a decade, but now the only airwaves he will be heard on will be those belonging to local police radio frequencies.
The longtime voice of KOOL FM’s afternoon show, Mabley announced last week that he was hanging up the headphones in pursuit of a job as an Ontario Provincial Police constable.
“I’m actually packing today and getting things ready because I leave tomorrow for police college,” Mabley told BarrieToday. “It's been a pretty busy time. My last day on the radio was New Year’s Eve, but busy getting ready.”
Mabley, 38, has been in local radio from the beginning of that career, having interned at ROCK 95 in 2004, straight out of radio broadcasting at North Bay’s Canadore College. He won a couple of awards for his work on the college’s radio station and brought that recognition back to his hometown.
"Getting to intern at the station I grew up listening to, that my parents listen to, was unreal. In my high school yearbook, when it asked what lies ahead for my future, I have radio DJ as my answer,” said Mabley, whose radio days date back to when the KOOL FM station was run out of the Kozlov Centre.
Mabley started where everyone starts: at the bottom. That meant doing all the hard work and weekend jobs. As part of the station’s promotional street team, Mabley set up tents and booths for live events.
After a little while doing that, he got a volunteer position doing overnight shift in the the 12 a.m. to 5 a.m. slot for the station.
“It didn’t pay, but it was to help me get experience and learn how to to do that side of the job,” Mabley said. “I was working other jobs while doing this, so that was a very busy time for me, but I knew I wanted to be on the radio so it was necessary.”
That led to a 7 a.m. to 12 p.m. gig on the weekends on top of learning other odd jobs around the station.
His big break came when he began on the sister station, STAR 107.5. When that was rebranded as 107.5 KOOL FM, Mabley made the switch and in 2011 made the permanent move to the coveted afternoon drive-home show.
“In radio, the weekday morning slot is the big one, followed by the drive-home show. This was a huge opportunity and I’ve loved doing it,” he said. “It's been so much fun interacting with the listeners in this slot. You know their drive home from work may be stressful, so being that person that helps them get through it is special.”
Growing up in Innisfil, Mabley was a hockey fan and attended Innisdale Secondary School with several Barrie Colts players. Colts hockey was the big game in town and Mabley got to live out another dream in 2005-06 when he became the voice of the team at was then called the Barrie Molson Centre.
Owners Howie Campbell and Jim Payetta "took over the team then and I was among their first hires. I did all the PA stuff and the only critique I got early on was I was too excited when the other team got a penalty or something like that,” Mabley said with a laugh. “But since then, I’ve only missed a handful of games.”
Mabley also learned the art of auctioneering and called many charity events and public sales.
Despite living what he called “a dream come true” with radio and working for his hometown OHL team, Mabley told BarrieToday that, after 16 years in radio, it was time for a different challenge.
In early September 2019, Mabley applied to the OPP and, due to some retirements coming up, he heard back before the month was over.
“I was doing well between auctions, Colts and radio, so my elevation to policing was my personal commitment to want to do more and impact in a different way,” Mabley said. “I had begun to get curious about it and attended some seminars.”
Mabley remembers his parents having a 'listening celebration' for his first radio gig, and while his parents, wife and two kids are supportive of his new endeavour, he admits there was a bit of fear.
“Yeah, I’m going from a relatively safe job on radio to a more dangerous job like policing; they were all a little nervous at first,” he said. “But as always, (they were) very supportive. My wife even helped me with the Beep test for my physical fitness exercises.”
Mabley’s training and education gets going Tuesday when he starts college for his new career.
It will be a different path for the kid who started as an intern at his hometown radio station and became a husband and father of two young children.
Despite not wanting to disclose which detachment he will be working at, Mabley explained the process and told BarrieToday he was content with the placement.
“What they have you do is give six locations where you’d like to be placed and they do their very best to accommodate you. I’m very happy with what they were able to do for me and my family in this situation,” he said. “I am excited to begin this chapter.”
As excited as Mabley is, he has been taking in all the comments from people in the community the last few days, some of whom have said he was what got them through the drive home, or what the kids listened to when they got home from school.
“I am really going to miss the past experience. Being in radio really was a dream come true for me, and to be able to connect to my community the way I did just made it even more special,” Mabley said. “I want anyone who listened to me to know that I never took it for granted, not once. I tried to speak to you whether you were at home, at work, in your car, or at the cottage.
"I appreciate everyone for their kind words the last few days, I really cherish all of it.”
